Masood Azhar

Masood Azhar (born 10 July 1968) is the leader of Jaish-e-Mohammed, a pan-Islamist militant group that fights for independence in Kashmir. He was a leader of the Harkat-ul-Ansar group from the 1980s to 1990s and preached for the destruction of both India and the United States, and Azhar was held responsible for the murder of five foreign touriusts in 1995.

Biography
Maulana Masood Azhar was born on 10 July 1968 in Bahawalpur, Punjab, in Pakistan and was one of ten siblings. He became involved with Harkat-ul-Ansar during the Soviet-Afghan War and fought alongside the Mujahideen against the Soviet Union, and he was wounded in the fighting. Azhar became a maulana who preached for pan-Islamism, and he made three trips to Somalia to bring Yemeni mercenaries to the region.

In 1994 he headed to Kashmir to ease tensions between Harkat-ul-Ansar factions Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, but he was arrested by India on charges of terrorism for his involvement with the groups. In 1995 he kidnapped two British, two American, one German, and one Norwegian tourist in the Kashmir Valley and killed four of them, with the al-Faran militia under Abdul Hamid Turki being held responsible for the murders. In 1999 he was freed by India in exchange for the hostages of Indian Airlines Flight 814 and in 2000 he gave a speech to 10,000 people, telling them that Muslims could not rest in peace until they destroyed India and the United States. He went into hiding and currently lives in Srinagar in the Kashmir region.